ICC says Hair to return during England-New Zealand series

Dubai, Mar 20 (UNI) The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said the controversial umpire Darrell Hair is likely to make his return during New Zealand's tour of England in May.

''We've done appointments up until that series so the first real opportunity will be the England-New Zealand series,''ICC general manager Dave Richardson told Sky Sports News.

''Both those teams actually rate Darrell Hair pretty highly, they have no problems with him, so it's likely that Darrell Hair will get an appointment in that series at some stage.'' Hair has returned to the ICC's Elite Panel of umpires earlier this week following a six-month period of rehabilitation.

The 55-year-old Australian was suspended from international cricket in November 2006 in the aftermath of the forfeited Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval.

Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove awarded the match to England after Pakistan refused to return to the field following accusations of ball-tampering.